Moby-Dick

'It's true. It's all true for Moby-Dick. He's a killer, he's a fury, he's an angel of hell. Why if the white whale could talk he'd talk like Ahab.'

Nantucket. 1851. Centre of a whaling industry that transformed blubber into the oils and candles that lit the world. It’s there that a schoolmaster called Ishmael arrives to ship on a whale-boat. He enrols under Ahab, Captain of the Pequod – a man bent on destroying the white whale that lost him his leg. Certain the destruction of his nemesis will slake his thirst; Ahab’s single-minded pursuit of Moby-Dick consumes Ishmael, the crew and the Pequod itself.

The spirit and atmosphere of Herman Melville's masterpiece – romantic, ambiguous, characterful and rich with allegory – is captured.

Additional Information

ISBN13

9781849435109

Binding

PaperBack

Page Extent

96

Reviews

‘Armesto makes an impressive job of boiling down the sprawling tale of 19th-century whale hunting, groaning with endless digressions, to its essence...a taut and ripping sea yarn – which nevertheless hasn’t lost the sense of Melville’s epic quest for life’s meaning’ Metro

‘Muscular and terse…vivid and profound.’ Time Out

‘Armesto’s adaptation captures not only this sense of pursuit – of Ahab’s blinkered need to keep going, whatever the cost – but also the wider themes of the book, the primal tangle between predestination and free will, the holiness of whales…from start to finish it exerts an incredible grip’ The Stage

‘[A] bold and brilliant stage adaptation… The script is well crafted, turning the dated but nonetheless adventure-filled novel, into an accessible show, full of the story’s original poetry… This is two hours of immensely entertaining theatre, complete with gold doubloons, sea shanties and rum’ Telegraph